While the Oculus Rift, (very slightly) curved displays, and 4K televisions are just now breaking out onto the tech scene, none of them feel like the future we were promised. Voxiebox — a holographic display like you would find in Star Wars orStar Trek – is a real device today and feels much more like the future than any display technology you’ve seen.
The Voxiebox began making the rounds last year, but it made an appearance last night at The Games Forum, a small event in New York City where independent game developers have attendees test and provide feedback on their products. Though the event was small and many of the games were very early builds, there were some notable experiences, such as Slashdash, an extremely fun two-on-two game of capture the flag as played by sword-wielding, teleporting ninjas. Simple Machine was there as well, creator of the acclaimed music puzzler Circadia, showing off an early build of a new numbers-based puzzle game. What was instantly noticeable as unique (without having to play it) was the Voxiebox volumetric display.
In various sci-fi movies and video games, there are scenes where the characters are playing chess, except in place of standard plastic or wooden pieces, the characters are shuffling holograms around the board. Perhaps the most notable instance of this is in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in a scene where R2-D2 and Chewbacca are playing aholographic chess-like game called Dejarik. This is essentially the Voxiebox. Videos and pictures don’t do the device justice — the chessboard image featured above is perhaps the best photograph of the box that demonstrates what it does. It’s a display you have to see for yourself in order to really be amazed.
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